1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to acoustic timbers for musical instruments. The present invention also relates to manufacturing methods of acoustic timbers and musical instruments composed of acoustic timbers.
The present application claims priority on Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-29843, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, natural timbers such as granadilla have been used as acoustic timbers for use in musical instruments such as clarinets.
However, natural timbers as acoustic timbers for musical instruments have the following problems.    (1) Natural timbers are natural resources which could be exhausted in the future, and the use of natural timbers could have a heavy impact on the environment.    (2) It takes a long time between logging and cutting.    (3) Natural timbers vary in hardness and specific gravity, which in turn causes dispersions in sound quality.    (4) Cracks and fractures may easily occur in natural timbers since they are expanded and contracted in shape due to variations of humidity.    (5) Rare timbers such as granadilla in particular are very expensive.
Various acoustic timbers have been developed and disclosed in various documents, such as Patent Documents 1-5, which disclose composite timbers. However, composite timbers artificially developed produce sounds with different quality compared to natural timbers. In actuality, it is difficult to substitute composite timbers for natural timbers in manufacturing musical instruments.                Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3654900 (corresponding to International Publication No. WO 94/17971)        Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 3581869        Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-105245        Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-117768        Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-196692        